A similar work nearly the same size but on panel, also dated 1927, was exhibited in Allan Gwynne-Jones, National Museum of Wales, no 19.

During the 1920s and ’30s Gwynne-Jones painted mostly landscapes and portraits, rather than the still-life subjects for which he is now so famous. He found inspiration for his flower pieces in the common plants of the garden and wayside.

He admitted to a great admiration for the still-life painters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, particularly Chardin and Zurbaran. His obituary in The Times, 6 August 1982, noted that 'Perhaps his vein of tender lyricism was most apparent in his paintings of flowers and still life, of which the Tate Gallery's Peaches in a Basket is a good example. Such works, while entirely personal in vision, echo the refinement of Chardin.'

Gwynne–Jones was almost obsessive about the career of some of his paintings, writing long descriptions of his method and instructions for their future care onto the back of them. ‘Maroger’ medium, which the artist mentions using for this painting, was named after the influential French painter and restorer Jacques Maroger (1884–1962), who researched the ‘lost secrets’ of Old Masters. His book The Secret Mediums and Techniques of the Masters was not published in English until 1948, but his recipes were already widely available. Although he was not really their inventor, they still carry his name. They have a very high lead content, and artists made them up at their peril.